


Chocolate Muffins, Nightmares and Some Xbox

by OnTheGround2012



Series: All I Saw Was You [52]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Derek, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Future, Attraction, Beginnings, Confessions, Flashbacks, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Future Fic, M/M, Memories, Mentioned Isaac Lahey, Mentioned Lydia Martin, Mentioned Scott McCall, Nightmares, Pre-Relationship, Questioning, Questions, Teen Romance, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-02 23:06:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10954608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnTheGround2012/pseuds/OnTheGround2012
Summary: Once Stiles is released from the hospital, Jackson visits him at his house during his recovery. Aka every love story has a beginning.





	Chocolate Muffins, Nightmares and Some Xbox

**Author's Note:**

> Hi.. So, as I expected, in the end very few people were interested in the last part (now part 48) and very few people read it but well, at least some people who actually commented said that they love Kane and his relationship with Derek which makes me feel a little better about that chapter. 
> 
> Therefore, I wasn't going to post any chapter this weekend but I won't be home the next one because I'm going to a convention in Barcelona, so I thought about posting this next Thursday but as a big thank you to those few people who had a second to comment in the last chapter, I've decided not to make them wait and share it today. The new part will be posted when I'm back or a weekend or two after that, it depends on the feedback, so I have no idea.
> 
> I guess that when you have read this you'll get perfectly why I didn't have in mind to write this chapter... now I can say that it feels like an important one. It's one of those things that have really surprised me.
> 
> A reader thanked me for posting [this Tumblr post](http://zsphoenix.tumblr.com/post/159757659852/ghastlydisco-scifigrl47-stoneyboboney) because she hadn't realised how important feedback is for the writers and just for that single comment, I can see that it's important to mention it.  
> At the end of the post there are also TIPS about feedback and what you can say when you don't know what to say (which happens to all of us sometimes)... it's really awesome, so please check it out... it mentions things like "quotes you like", "What's your feeling at the end of the chapter?", etc.
> 
> Anyway, I'm gonna copy the beginning of the post and if with this comment I can help more writers out there who feel like giving up or removing their stories from AO3, I'll be happy. If this useless, at least I tried:  
>  
> 
> _I’ve seen five different authors take down, or prepare to take down, their posted works on Ao3 this week. At the same time, I’ve seen several people wishing there was more new content to read. I’ve also seen countless posts by authors begging for people to leave comments and kudos._
> 
> _People tell me I am a big name fan in my chosen fandom. I don’t quite get that but for the purposes of this post, let’s roll with it. On my latest one shot, less than 18% of the people who read it bothered to hit the kudos button. Sure, okay, maybe that one sort of sucked. Let’s look at the one shot posted before that - less than 16% left kudos. Before that - 10%, and then 16%. I’m not even going to get into the comments. Let’s just say the numbers drop a lot. I’m just looking at one shots here so we don’t have to worry about multiple hits from multiple chapters, people reading previous chapters over, etc. And if I am a BNF, that means other people are getting significantly less kudos and comments._
> 
> _(...)TL;DR: Passively devouring content is killing fandom._
> 
> _^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^_
> 
> _Fandom is kept alive by readers, watchers, lookers, commenters, and supporters. And the FiKi fandom has some MAGNIFICENT ones…but a lot more who click, consume, and say nothing._
> 
> _Otherwise, artists and writers are throwing into a vacuum. And it’s the artists and writers who get blamed when there’s not new content?_
> 
> _This applies to so many fandoms. It makes me so sad to see that even on LJ comms, there are far more people reading things than there are commenting on and liking them. I co-mod one of the oldest sites in a particular fandom, and I know it’s still active because of the sign-ups for our challenges, but it’s so disheartening when people post and nobody says anything._
> 
> _How does that encourage new writers, if the first thing they post gets no response? (...) I don’t know why fandom is getting so heavily skewed towards passive consumption, but I wish I could do something - anything - to fix it. I miss the kind of comment threads that used to lead directly to more fic and art._
> 
> _(Keep reading[it here](http://zsphoenix.tumblr.com/post/159757659852/ghastlydisco-scifigrl47-stoneyboboney) and reblog it if you can...)_
> 
>    
> Thanks to my lovely beta for her help as usual; she's amazing and I couldn't share this without her advice.

There’s a knock on the door of his bedroom and Stiles says “come in” from his bed without thinking twice about it. He thought it was his dad or Scott checking in on him. Instead, it’s Jackson in his leather jacket and perfect hair carrying two bags in his left hand.

“Hi,” Jackson says. He’s just standing there, like he’s afraid to move, licking his lip and looking around with curiosity. This is the first time he’s been there and sure enough, this place with all kinds of stuff everywhere totally feels like Stiles’s place.

“What…? What are you doing here?” Stiles asks from his bed both surprised and confused. Even if he’s under the covers, suddenly, he feels very self-conscious of his Superman pajamas and his messy hair.

“Can’t I come to see you?” Jackson asks, still not moving.

“I didn’t mean that. I meant that you should have called first.” Stiles waves his right arm.

“Why?” Jackson frowns. “I knew you were here.”

“Because…” Stiles hesitates. “Well, you know, I might have been busy.”

“Stiles, you’re fucking recovering. What could you possibly have to do?”

“I have stuff to do… a lot of stuff.”

“Yeah, like playing games and watching TV shows. You’re so busy..." Jackson says with sarcasm.

“For starters, I have to study… between almost dying and all that I’m totally behind in case you don’t remember. It will be a miracle if I don’t fail this semester.”

Jackson rolls his eyes dramatically and shakes his head. “Please... Don’t exaggerate, you aren’t repeating shit. There’s still time to catch up.” Jackson finally decides to close the door and take a few steps until he’s standing next to the bed.

“Speak for yourself. It doesn’t help that Harris hates my guts. And don’t say that he doesn’t, because he does.”

“I wasn’t going to say that. I was going to say that I could help you. I’m not too bad at chemistry.”

Stiles is speechless for a moment. It’s not enough to have Jackson in his room, now that sentence just came out of his mouth.

“You want to help me to study?” Stiles raises his eyebrows.

“Yeah, I do. I mean, if you want to… but you have to recover first. The doctor said you should take it easy. You shouldn’t--”

“Doesn’t it look like I’m _taking it easy_?” Stiles interrupts him, pointing to the bed. “My father won’t let me leave the house until god knows when…”

“The doctor told him you need to rest. He’s still worried about you.”

Stiles snorts. “And yet, here you are... back to school and back to your life. Fucking perfect.” Irony all over his words.

“Yeah, I’m a wolf and I healed faster, you know that but I’m not fucking perfect, okay? So don’t say that. I’ve got my own shit going on.”

Stiles doesn’t say anything. He’s not certain if he’s allowed to ask. He’s not sure how much his relationship with Jackson has changed. After what they went through and Jackson’s visit at the hospital with the pack, it feels like they are almost friends but he’s not sure if Jackson actually thinks the same.

“You can sit, you know?” Stiles says pointing to the empty space on the right side of the bed.

Jackson doesn’t reply but he sits down.

“What’s in the bags?” Stiles looks with curiosity at the bags Jackson has now left next to him on the bed.

“This is from Scott. I told him I was coming and he asked me to bring you these books and some homework.” Jackson hands him the bag and Stiles leaves it on the other side of the bed. “He said he’ll call you later to explain what you have to do.”

“And this, well…” Jackson hands him the other bag. “I remembered how you said that you love muffins and chocolate…”

“You brought me chocolate muffins?” Stiles asks taking out the bakery’s box and opening it.

“Yeah. I thought it could cheer you up, you know.”

And the way Jackson has said that, like it’s the most normal thing in the world to buy something because it will make him happy… well, it makes him all warm inside, and it shows that he cares and that he most probably considers him a friend or wants them to be friends.

Stiles grabs a muffin and takes a bite.

“Oh shit.” Stiles says after as he swallows. “This is so good… Try one.” Stiles offers him the box.

“No, thanks. I’m good. It’s for you.”

Stiles takes another bite.

“My parents always go to that bakery. It’s their favorite.”

“Well, mission accomplished,” Stiles says licking some chocolate stuck in couple of fingers. “It definitely cheered me up.”

Jackson simply smiles as Stiles continues eating the muffin.

“That’s not.... That’s not the only reason why I came.” Jackson finally admits.

“Why I’m not surprised… What’s happened now?”

“Nothing has happened.”

“Then what is it?”

“It’s… Scott told me you are having nightmares. He said that--”

“He shouldn’t have told you.” Stiles interrupts him.

“Why not? He’s your best friend… he’s like your brother, isn’t he? He’s fucking worried and he thought… well, he thought I should know.”

“Yes, he’s my best friend but he should know better than to tell everybody about it!”

“Hey! As far as I know he’s only told _me_! And he only told me because he thought that maybe I could help you… but I don’t think so. The truth is I’m having them too.”

“You’re having nightmares?” Stiles raises his eyebrows surprised.

“Yeah. Why are you so surprised? I was in that shithole with you, remember? Just because I’ve healed, it doesn’t mean…” Jackson licks his lips. “You know… I need to be doing stuff all the time because if I stop to think, if I close my eyes, I just… I can’t get it out of my fucking mind. So yeah, the doctor gave me some stuff to help me sleep, probably the same stuff they gave you. But then, when I finally fall asleep, I have fucking nightmares. What? You thought I was perfectly fine, right? Is that what you thought?”

“Well, I didn’t know what to think. I guess I thought you were probably fine… You didn’t say anything at the hospital...” Because that’s the truth. And now that he thinks about it, that’s all kinds of wrong.

“I didn’t tell you because we were never alone. There was always someone else there with us.”

That makes sense because Stiles doesn’t feel like telling any pack member either.

“So, you haven’t told anybody?” Stiles frowns.

“My parents know. I kind of screamed one night and they heard me, so it’s not like if I could have hidden it from them. Now they want me to see a psychologist, if you can imagine that."

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Jackson nods.

“And you’re gonna do it?”

Jackson snorts. “At first I didn’t want to go, you know? This idea of talking to a total stranger… it’s not exactly my kind of thing.”

There is a silence after. Stiles knows now that sometimes Jackson just needs time to say what he needs to say.

“But they… well, they’ve taken the whole _wolf_ thing really well and they want what’s best for me. And shit, the truth is that I’m as fucked up as you are… So, yeah, I suppose I’m going to do it because I guess I have nothing to lose and it will make them happy. I guess I owe it to them after everything…” Jackson admits.

And since when does Jackson Whittemore owe anything to anybody? Since when does he care what his parents think? It’d be hard to believe it if it wasn’t because Jackson is sitting on his bed and he’s just uttered those words.

“Just, not a word of this to Derek or anybody else for that matter, okay? I don’t care if he’s the alpha… this is none of his business.”

“So, are you telling me that I’m the only one who knows? Because you should at least tell Lydia.”

Jackson licks lips as he seems to be considering what he wants to say.

“Lydia and I are over. We broke up last week.”

“You broke up?” Stiles raises his eyebrows confused. “What do you mean you broke up?”

“What’s so hard to understand?” Jackson waves his right arm. “We-are-no-longer-together,” Jackson says, stressing each word.

Stiles smiles and rolls his eyes. Sometimes Jackson’s bluntness can be kind of adorable, he had just never realized before.

“Yeah, I get that but I mean, she loves you, right? Why would you break up?” Stiles doesn’t understand it.

“I’m not sure that she ever really loved me… I know that she cares about me as much I care about her but the truth is that I’m _not_ in love with her.” Jackson runs his right hand through his hair. “Do you remember what I told you one of those days in that fucking basement? I mean, what I wanted to do if we got out of there.”

Stiles snorts. “We both said a lot of things… you’ll have to be more specific than that, sorry.”

“I said that if we came out alive, I was done being what was expected of me. I said I’d do whatever made me happy… and I… you know, I told you I’d try to be a better version of myself, didn’t I? And being with her for the wrong reasons doesn’t feel right anymore and it isn’t fair either. So, it wasn’t like I broke her heart, okay? We’re better as friends and she knows that.”

Stiles could joke and say that he thought it was the lack of food and sleep talking back then but no, it didn’t feel like that. It felt like Jackson being honest and thinking about his life in a way he had never done before, having that kind of realization you only have when you think you might die.

“Well, in that case I guess you did the right thing.”

Jackson nods and there’s a silence after that where Stiles is looking at Jackson and Jackson is looking at him and it’s the weirdest feeling. He’s never kissed anybody and he’s not sure what kind of signal is supposed to tell you that it’s going to be okay if you actually do it and take that risk.

He looks at Jackson’s eyes, then at his mouth and he could bet that this magnetism he’s feeling between them right in that moment is not just his imagination… he’s pretty fucking sure but he’s not going to risk making a fool of himself and he’s not going to risk this new sort of friendship that is starting between them either. So, instead he licks his lips and decides to get that crazy idea out of his head.

“By the way, humm… Erica and Isaac… I mean, pretty much the whole pack is going to the cinema on Saturday and you know, if you’re feeling up to it and your father lets you… I thought that maybe you’d like to come with us.”

Stiles almost says _really?_ but thank god, he stops himself in time.

“That sounds cool… Humm… I’m feeling much better. So, why not? Tell them to count me in, yeah.” Stiles smiles and so does Jackson.

“I can’t guarantee that the movie won’t suck though. But I’ll try to keep Isaac from choosing it.”

“That’s okay,” Stiles says.

The truth is that it will feel great to get out of the house and do something normal again for a change.

In that moment Jackson gets a text, so he finds his phone in his jacket and reads it.

“Do you have to go or something?” Stiles asks. The idea of being alone right now doesn’t feel very appealing... or maybe it’s the idea of Jackson not being there a little more time.

“No, it’s my mother. Something came up at work. She’ll be home late tonight. She told me to order a pizza or something.”

Jackson sends a reply and puts the phone back in his jacket pocket.

“So, you are not leaving?” Stiles asks.

“Why? Do you want me to go?” Jackson frowns. “Because I could go.”

“No, I didn’t mean it like that. I just... I thought maybe you have things to do, that’s all.”

“No, I can stay for a while if you want,” Jackson says hesitantly.

“Yeah, would you like to play some xbox?”

The truth is that Jackson doesn’t spend as much time playing games as Stiles and Scott do, so he knows he’s not half as good as they are but since Stiles enjoys playing that thing, he can give it a try.

“Yeah, sure. I could do that.” Jackson nods.

Stiles smiles. This is going to be interesting.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for checking it. I'm [otg2012](http://otg2012.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr.
> 
> Feedback is important in case you don't know.
> 
> You can comment (and leave kudos) without an account. You only need an e-mail to comment. It's easy and fast.


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